Strawberry Custard Gratin

This is literally a no-fuss dessert. I made it as a late evening tv snack.

What you need:

• strawberry’s, halved
• vanilla custard
• brown sugar

Place strawberries in a small ovenproof dish. Pour custard over. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Put under heated grill until the top is browned. Ready to eat!

It’s also very tasty with some fresh cream squirted over.

Recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Coffee Cupcakes

Since my husband loves coffee, I thought I’d make some coffee flavoured cupcakes. This is such an easy recipe – I guarantee if you don’t like baking, you will find this a breeze. For those of you who tried my chocolate brownies, I recommend giving these a bash.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2t coffee diluted in 2T water
• ½ cup milk
• 1½ cup flour
• 3 large eggs
• 1t vanilla essence
• 3t baking powder

Preheat oven to 180ºC

Using an electric beater, beat all ingredients together in a bowl – except the 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Beat for 10 minutess. I used setting 3/5 on my beater. After 10 minutes you will notice the mixture is very creamy and smooth. (I recommend leaving your butter out to soften a bit before baking). Lastly, add 3t baking powder and beat in.

Pour 1 tablespoon of batter in each cup. I got about 23.

Bake for 15 minutes on 180ºC

Once cupcakes are completely cool, ice with the following:

• 30g melted butter
• 1t coffee diluted in 1t water
• 1t honey
• 1t vanilla essence
• 1T water
• 1 cup icing sugar

Mix everything together until smooth. Ice cupcakes. Decorate with caramel or chocolate vermicelli before icing hardens.

Thanks to my little sis who gave me this recipe.

Leftovers

It’s actually quite fun coming up with something when you have leftovers. I made extra penne arrabiata and didnt wanna eat the same thing. My husband suggested I make a “chops casserole”.
“What?”
His mum used to make it and he said it was very tasty. So I decided why not.

I added some salsa flavouring into the pasta for a slightly differnt taste. I then fried some chops in white pepper.

Using a pyrex dish, I layered some penne at the bottom, then the fried chops, then another layer of the pasta. Topped with cheese and tomato. Baked it in the oven until the cheese melted.

Penne Arrabiata

I never get tired of pasta dishes. So here’s another one.

Boil penne in salted water. Drain, cool and set aside once cooked. In the meantime, start preparing arrabiata sauce with the following:

• Fresh parsley
• Garlic
• Onion
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Red chilli
• Olive oil
• Tomatoes

Heat olive oil and add chopped parsley and garlic. After a few minutes add half a chopped onion. Add red chilli, salt and black pepper. Add liquidized tomato. Optional: add sliced green chilli. Let it cook for a short while, until saucy.

Mix together with penne.

Serve with parmesan and ground black pepper.

Cream of Mussel Soup

I made this on request of my husband and it was perfect for the weather. Its very quick and easy to make, which was the best part.

I cooked the mussels seperately first, using about 250g of mussel meat.

Clean and wash mussels. In a frying pan, fry mussels with butter, lemon garlic pepper (Robertsons), a bit of fresh Italian parsley, some lemon juice, black pepper and some garlic. Fry for about 6 minutes. Set aside.

What you need for cream based soup:

• 4T butter
• 2T flour
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh cream

Similar to a white sauce, melt butter and add flour. Mix and add water and milk and bring to the boil. Add fresh cream and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. At this point I ground black pepper into the pot and added some salt, with a little bit of lemon garlic pepper. Add the cooked mussels. Let it simmer again for about 5-8 minutes. Remove from stove.

Ready to eat. Serve with rolls.